"Haig's War"

[Rob Connolly]

I'm preparing to annotate Gary Sheffield's "Somme", which is the only way I can be certain of remembering what happened and when to whom. I came across a reference in his Introduction about a forthcoming volume called "Haig's War", co-written by himself, Peter Simkins and John Lee. However, doing a search for such a title doesn't bring any such volume up. Is it still being prepared (unlikely, as the Introduction is over 5 years old)? Or has it emerged with a different title and/or different authors?

[Greenwoodman]

Anyone shed any light on this title?

[Chris_Baker]

Shades, I suspect, of the old SHLM project, another mighty analysis of the performance of the BEF that never has seen the light of day.

Simpkins

Lee

McCarthy

can't recall who H is!

[George Armstrong Custer]

It's supposed to be published next year, but I'm not sure if it will be a joint venture or, as I suspect, Sheffield alone. Although he's done some good work, Sheffield does have his limitations IMHO.

ciao,

GAC

[SiegeGunner]

can't recall who H is!

Bryan Hammond?

[Chris_Baker]

Exactement.

[truthergw]

Blimey! 5 years in the production. It ought to be good.

[Simon Jones]

Bryan Hammond?

Bryn!

[SiegeGunner]

Bryn!

Indeed – apologies to Mr Hammond.

http://www.firstworldwar.bham.ac.uk/members/hammond.htm

[Gibbo]

A recent article in The Sunday Times, which I can't find on its website, complained that the success of Amanda Foreman's biography of Georgina, Duchess of Devonshire had led publishers to look for other biographies of glamorous historical women written by glamorous young women. Foreman's work was based on her PhD but marketing men have attributed its success at least partly to her publisher's use of her good looks in its advertising. A biography of Haig was amongst those mentioned as having been cancelled as a result. The author wasn't named but I'd previously read that Gary Sheffield was working on a biography of him. Additionally, the blurb accompanying an article by Paul Harris & Sanders Marble in the January 2008 edition of War in History Harris is completing a major military biography of Haig. The abstract of the Harris/Marble article below suggests that he may praise the BEF but be critical of Haig, if his work is published.

The British Expeditionary Force of the First World War did not fight a deliberately attritional war, despite the heavy casualties and slow gains it experienced. Before the BEF launched a single trench-warfare attack, senior officers argued for a methodical and clearly attritional operational approach, accepting limited gains and slow overall progress to get a favourable casualty exchange rate. The idea quickly had senior adherents, especially Sir William Robertson. Sir Douglas Haig, however, was consistently optimistic, thinking breakthroughs were possible; this prejudiced him against lesser, attritional, attacks. Not until mid-1917 did the BEF substantially adopt methodical step-by-step attacks.

Of course, the Haig biography may find another publisher, or it may be by a 3rd author, or it may have been cancelled due to the market for Haig biographies being saturated & be nothing at all to do with the perceived lack of glamour of Haig & his potential biographer compared with Georgina, Duchess of Devonshire & Amanda Foreman. On the other hand, Denis Winter attributed Haig's early career success to his looks! He pointed out in Haigs' Command that Haig was handsome & then claimed, without quoting sources, that his early career benefited from the patronage of homosexuals.

[simonharley]

He pointed out in Haigs' Command that Haig was handsome & then claimed, without quoting sources, that his early career benefited from the patronage of homosexuals.

Defamation is always a wonderful thing. Since its relatively unusual for military history to go "mainstream" in print its a shame that publishers so often (in my experience) allow authors to write things which if the subject had been alive a High Court appearance would be in order.

Martin, any recollection of who wrote The Sunday Times article?

Simon

[Gibbo]

I've now managed to find the Sunday Times article by searching via google rather than the paper's own website. It was titled 'Bitchiness breaks out in the world of biographies' & was written by Maurice Chittenden & was in the 6 July 2008 edition. It's linked below but I feel that I should warn people that it includes a rather racey picture of Dr. Foreman with her modesty protected by some strategically placed copies of her book.

Bitchiness breaks out in the world of biographies

PS: The Duchess of Devonshire of Dr. Foreman's book was called Georgiana, not Georgina, & the latest edition of the book has been renamed The Duchess in line with the forthcoming film starring Keira Knightley.

[truthergw]

......................On the other hand, Denis Winter attributed Haig's early career success to his looks! He pointed out in Haigs' Command that Haig was handsome & then claimed, without quoting sources, that his early career benefited from the patronage of homosexuals.

There is rather more substantial evidence to suggest that Winter was not a well man when he wrote that book, which also suggests a vast conspiracy between National museums, military authorities,authors, publishers and goodness knows who else to falsify the contents of Haig's diaries. A rather sad end to his career.

[Rob Connolly]

Oh dear what have I started!

Been abroad for two weeks, which is when this humble question I posed suddenly became of interest - and when I couldn't read anything about it. Racy ladies, pederasty, academic slander - ahh, what it is to be back on the Forum ...

[Bryn_Hammond]

Dear all

By way of explanation (and not justification), I think it's fair to say that none of the four original SHLM-ers were adequately prepared for the level of commitment the project would need to sustain it. All of us had (or have) full time jobs and other FWW projects on the go (I was working on my doctoral thesis). All four have subsequently produced work that, I think, has (or will) improve our understanding of the British Army in the FWW and, what's often forgotten, several people who were part of the bigger team of SHLM-ers have gone on to do other projects that have done the same e.g. Andy Simpson, Gary Sheffield, Charles Fair, the late Colin Fox, Tony Cowan, Sanders Marble, etc.

So I'll publicly accept my share of criticism for SHLM's failure. But I'm in the clear about Haig's Army!

To show I do complete projects, my Cambrai book comes out on 11 September - you can find it (and order it!) on Amazon. BUY!! BUY!! BUY!!! One day I may also publish my thesis.

Oh, and it is BRYN Hammond - but not the New Zealand angler, British actor or ?American horror director. When I was a lad there was only one Bryn Hammond I knew of. Now there are loads!

Best wishes

Bryn